Some More Thoughts on Vandred

I’m rewatching parts of it, and I noticed some odd things as I viewed episode 2. Some of them, I already had noticed, but forgot about as the show progressed. I expected answers would show up and since they were minor points at best, it wasn’t worth keeping track of. Coming back through the series a second time, they’ve piqued my interest again. Edit: I’ve come back and blacked out a lot of spoilers, so as not to ruin it for others.

At the end of episode 1, the Paksis appears to be reacting to the strong emotions shown by Dita and Hibiki. When the torpedos hit, Hibiki has an unclear vision, through a Paksis energy field, of the Vandread Dita. Of course, he has no idea what he’s seeing, as the first Vandread hasn’t been formed yet, and it’s not recognizable as either the Van or a Dread. Then, at beginning of episode 2 Hibiki has a weird dream that appears to be influenced by the Paksis field that he, Pyoro, Dita, Jura, and Meia fell into at the end of episode 1. He’s pushing his way to the front of a large crowd, and when he gets to the front, he’s confronted by a series of visions he doesn’t understand. First, Paksis crystals rise out of the ground to block his path, and he can see vague, terrifying images of all three pilots in them. A vivid image of Dita as he actualy saw her seems to banish (or at least replace) the horrors, and then he is climbing a steep slope. The last bit of this scene looks exactly like the final seconds of the climb up the slope in the cave. I’d concluded in the first viewing that most of the cave scene actually was in his mind, and this cinched it, because it’s exactly the same scene. Yeah, yeah, I know, scene re-use to save money, right? Wrong. You have to see the show to understand; in the 2nd series the scene is about him taking the final steps on his path to discovering who Hibiki is; finding the “proof of his existance.” This was foreshadowing that moment.

However, in episode 2, his elation at conquering the slope turns to horror as he sees the torpedoes closing in. Vandread Dita appears again, firing its beam weapons and destroying the torpedoes, and then there’s a long fall down a tunnel of light into a bright explosion–from which the two ships and sundry battle debris suddenly emerge. For a while we’re watching the real action, but soon enough, we’re back in Hibiki’s dream, where he’s having a bizzare conversation with one or more entities (the Paksis, actually) in the guise of the the three female pilots and Pyoro. The voices demand “What is the proof of Hibiki’s existance?” (The Paksis is willing to talk to him, but it doesn’t believe he exists? Does it think Hibiki is its dream?)

Skipping forward a bit, the joined ships are under attack from unknown aliens, and BC is escorting (an awake) Hibiki to one of the remaining Vans so he can sortie. Hibiki confesses he’s not really a pilot and has no idea what he’s doing. BC starts verbally slapping him around,and knows exactly how to punch his buttons. (How a woman out of contact with men knew how to do it so well is something already covered in an earlier post.) Oddly, what she says is “Aren’t you here for your pride? No, to show proof of your existance? Male or female, it doesn’t matter. Under these conditions, as a human, as a lifeform…”

I don’t care how you slice it, that is a damned weird way to put the screws to Hibiki. So what I wonder is, was that just coincidence? Given that BC has that same green gem on her forehead that Hibiki later gets, and the Paksis’ role in that, I am forced to wonder if I missed a bet. Was it not Parfait, but BC that was at least in partial contact with the Paksis prior to the first episode, and is she why the pirate Dreads were so superior to the men’s fleet? Here’s another question: Why did the Paksis grab the women’s ship during the battle? The Paksis, all five entities that fuse with it, the Van, and the three Dreads are all on the Ikazuchi at the moment the torpedos impact.Why did the it feel the need to grab the women’s ship also?

My tenative answer: Because BC was on it, and the Paksis, at some level, was aware of and in contact with her. It might have been acting half-instictively, but it realized that she was there, so it grabbed both ships, and once they landed on the far side of the wormhole, it promptly fused them together. And when BC set out to goad Hibiki into action, she unconciously echoed the words of the Paksis.